EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Dec. 22, 2023.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
Under all the trappings of Christmas as we know it today, lies a very simple and beautiful story that gets forgotten, but could be revolutionary if only the world paid attention.
We love our cutesy image of Baby Jesus, lying swaddled in cloth, surrounded by well-behaved farm animals and his loving mother and father staring on in adoration. Throw in the visiting wisemen, some angels, an amazing glowing star and you’ve got a Hollywood blockbuster!
Makes one want to throw up Christmas lights, sprinkle tinsel on the tree and run up the credit cards in the hopes of a squeal when your loved ones rip open their packages. … All really good distractions from the actual Christmas message.
But if we really cared to dig in, we’d realize the real Christmas story has far more to offer than what we’ve created in our superficial, Westernized version of the nativity.
On Christmas some 2,000 years ago, Joseph and Mary found themselves strangers in a city many days from home. Too poor and fortunate to find proper lodging, they bedded down in a filthy barn, where the mother of the Son of God had to inhumanely give birth to the most important king in history.
These two teenagers must have been frightened stiff about the news of their early pregnancy getting out, and yet trusting the messages they each received from heaven’s angels, they dutifully played their roles to usher God into the world in the form of a defenseless human child.
That’s right: God didn’t come in the form of some magnificent conqueror, complete with the trumpeting horns, marching armies and the pomp and circumstance associated with power and might. … God entered the world through the blind faith of a couple of frightened kids, with no safety net and only a whole lot of uncertainty ahead of them.
My prayer for you this Christmas -- regardless of your faith -- is that you find time to imagine what the real Christmas story has to offer us. And it’s anything but a Hollywood production, and far from the glamorous celebrations we’ve convinced ourselves are important.
The real Christmas story tells us that each of us, in our own bodies, is enough. After all, if God enters the world as a helpless child, then surely however each of us lives in our bodies is good enough.
The real Christmas story tells us that if the most important event in the history of the world can take place alongside flatulent farm animals, then maybe we’ve focused on the wrong aspects of Christmas.
And finally, the real Christmas story tells us that if God can be ushered into this world amidst a brutal imperial occupation, born to a couple of impoverished, unwed Jewish teenagers fearing for their little one’s life … then nothing is impossible for our God.
That is what Christmas celebration is about … and it’s simple and beautiful. Amen.
Devlyn Brooks is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and serves Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He also works for Forum Communications Co. He can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com for comments and story ideas.
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